Thursday, February 18, 2016

review || CARRY YOU HOME { blog tour } by K. Ryan

Everything is going as planned, for the most part. With school, the club, and new responsibilities on the horizon, the life Caleb and Isabelle imagined together is so close they can taste it. But their happiness is also a fragile one--all it takes is one wrong turn, one stupid decision and their happily ever after shatters all over the highway.

Because as old threats resurface and new ones rise, the most deadly enemy of all lies not in outside forces, but inside the club itself. How do you follow orders when you know those orders might destroy everything you love? How do you move forward when all your best-laid plans slip right through your fingertips?

Choice breeds consequence. Hope rises from the ashes. Love weathers any storm. And in the end, every road leads home.

**Carry You Home is not a standalone and is the sequel to Carry Your Heart. It is intended for readers 18 and older**

{ about k. ryan } .

K. Ryan is a former English teacher, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2009. In between ‘real life’ duties, she’s been writing the Carry Your Heart series quietly on the side for the last two years. When not writing, she’s either binge-watching something on Netflix, running, reading, or cheering on the Packers. She lives in the Green Bay area with her crazy-supportive boyfriend and the best decision of her adult life, a not-so-stray cat named Oliver.

{ review } .

When we left off with Iz and Caleb, we were given a cliff that gave us questions about what direction they were going to go in. Life has caught up with them, and now they must learn the importance of communication, before they're torn apart from one another. Isabelle has her own new fears to face, and one of my favorite scenes in this book was the opening one -- her fear, but then also the excitement of Skylar (who I have always loved -- Caleb's mom has been great with Iz from the get-go).

Just when they thought life couldn't get much better, Caleb and Isabelle are given a wrench in their plans, and their love is truly tested.

"...maybe you don't get there the way you thought you would and maybe you don't even end up where you expected, but you always there at the right place and the right time because that's exactly where you're supposed to be."

Their conclusion certainly isn't an easy one -- hard to be when life revolves around crime and a motorcycle club. And while I still wish we had been given their story in three-chunks (gasp, yes, I wanted this to be the trilogy it was originally intended for) simply because I wanted to savor it, I can't help but love the amount of drama, emotion, and suspense that K. Ryan packed into this second, and final, book for Iz and Caleb. Ms. Ryan delivers a story full of emotional angst, grief and guilt, and the power of love -- and that sometimes time does nothing but put a light on everything you thought you knew. There was anger towards decisions, and tears for the things Isabelle and Caleb go through. There wasn't a single thing missing for me, and the very end kept this happily ever after lover happy.

"Everything worth having in life comes with patience. You have to work for it and you have to wait until the time's right."

No comments:

Post a Comment

a quick note from { mignon } ...

I AM NO LONGER ACTIVE IN REVIEWING

The last two years has been incredibly rewarding, giving me the opportunity to pick up new-to-me authors, as well as new-to-the-world authors. I have enjoyed supporting publishing houses as well as the indie author, and in doing so, I learned a lot about the marketing aspect of writing a book and selling it as a self-published author.

I have re-focused my journey to more writing-minded. I still read and review! But not nearly at the rate I was; three books a day has turned to three books a month.

I will no longer be accepting individual review requests (unless it's specifically author-to-author, then it will be highly considered).

I will definitely be posting reviews for commitments I have already made, though.Thank you for understanding, & thank you to all those I have worked with over the last year plus!

GOODREADS updates

He is the exact public person I despise. You know the type -- all biblical with publicized praying and verses all over his public persona. Great. Good for you. Bet you're not like that behind closed doors...

Which is exactly what Esther thinks of him.

Saint and Esther attend the same super religious college. Esther is on the fast track to becoming a nun, and no I do not kid, and Saint, given name Francis, can do just about whatever he wants, because he is the star athlete and the school knows he has connections. What in the world can these two have in common? The actions of their parents.

But where Saint does what his father says, usually, because his father is pushing him toward a pro-football careers, Esther follows her parents (father) because if she didn't... Her life would literally be a living hell.

I really enjoyed these two, once we started to get to know Saint a little bit better. My only drawback with the book would be the last half goes by in super-fast time. While it helped to keep the story moving, I would have liked to see more of that time drawn out so the feelings and emotions of our two characters felt more genuine and real -- rather than simply a two month courting that their lives demanded.

I'm giving the book the full 5 stars because it came out of left-field for me. It was a book that I didn't expect to like, but the author wove it in a way that I fell hard for our characters both as individuals and as a couple. I liked watching Esther grow and find her voice in life, just as I liked watching playboy, always for the chase Saint, settle down and find a person to be terribly protective over. I loved him most in the last two chapters.

Here's something you may know about me if you've followed my reviews -- I'm an epilogue reader. I will almost always read the epilogue first. Call me a spoilsport or no fun, or whatever but that's how I've been reading books for years. It's no wonder that when I write books, I tend to have the epilogue all figured out before I even start with "Once upon a time...".

That said... I read this epilogue and while I liked it, I just couldn't get past the ages of our characters. Couldn't do it. So I read the beginning. Still... If anything, the age of our characters was even more pronounced. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read this. You see, I have an issue with "Happily ever after" and the hardly-twenty crowd, let alone an eighteen year old.

But that's my hang-up.

Another thing you may know about me? I will sometimes read a book in what I call a inside-out fashion. I jump all over the place until I find a snippet of story that absolutely grips me. And people -- there are a few of those parts in Everything. So because I found those gripping parts, I put my faith in Erin Noelle, and I started from page one -- and I gave Everett and Belle a chance.

And I'm so glad I did.

Everett and his twin sister have been making music forever -- literally. They're the children of a rockstar; music has always been their life. When their father's group decides to get back together (dad always said he'd go back when the twins were done with school), Mason tells the label -- if you take me, you're taking my kids: thus, giving Everett and Ashlynn the opportunity to take their music to a larger level than they have before.

Along the way, with a local gig, Everett meets Belle -- and so begins their story.

This is a story about growing up. This is a story about following your heart -- be it for a person or a career, or even both. It is about learning to trust the person you are giving your heart to, and about taking the ever-looming jump into unknown feelings. When you put your life, your wants, your desires in someone else's hands, the world opens up -- and it certainly does for Everett and Belle.

The part I most appreciated was that the author made Everett true to his age and situation. Belle was too, yes, but it was Everett and his new lifestyle that had me wanting to see true characterization for. He's a guy; he's a musician; he's new to love. He makes mistakes. And for those mistakes, I truly got on board with this story.

Everett and his Tinker Bell were incredibly cute. I liked that there's a decent time jump at the end, further allowing -- you guessed it -- growth of our characters. I'm excited to watch more of them when (if?) Ashlynn's story comes out.

TOURING with ...

ADVERTISEMENT

Contact { mm:r }

FTC Disclosure

Unless otherwise stated, all books I review are books I've received for free from the author or publisher. I receive nothing, monetary or otherwise, for expressing my opinion and/or promoting the books. I do, however, participate in the Amazon Affiliate program, and as such I do receive a small commission when these links are clicked. Affiliate links and free books in no way affect my opinion.